Reframing Biblical Studies: When Language and Text Meet Culture, Cognition, and Context

418 Pages·2009·5.776 MB·

by  Ellen J. van Wolde

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Reframing Biblical Studies
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Reframing Biblical Studies
When Language and Text Meet
Culture, Cognition, and Context
Ellen van Wolde
Winona Lake, Indiana
Eisenbrauns
2009
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ç Copyright 2009 by Ellen van Wolde.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
www.eisenbrauns.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wolde, E. J. van.
Reframing biblical studies : when language and text meet culture,
cognition, and context / Ellen van Wolde.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57506-182-5 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Bible. O.T.—
Language, style. 3. Hebrew Language—Semantics, Historical.
4. Cognitive grammar. I. Title.
BS511.3.W663 2009
221.6u6—dc22
2009045507
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. †‘
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2. Frameworks of thinking in biblical studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1. Literary studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.2. Linguistic studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3. Historical studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2.4. Archaeological studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.2.5. Integrated studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3. Reframing biblical studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4. Aims and structure of this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 2
Mental Processing or Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.1. Cognition, categories, and culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2. Cognition, embodied mind, and experiential realism . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3. Cognitive Linguistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4. Cognitive Grammar: Symbolization and coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.5. Cognitive Grammar: Grounding and integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7. Three examples: Moon, sea, and love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.7.1. The crescent moon in ancient Babylonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.7.2. The sea in the ancient world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.7.3. Love in English and in Biblical Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 3
Words as Tips of Encyclopedic Icebergs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1. Words and meaning: A historical survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2. Words, culture, and cognition: Explanatory concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.2.2. Profile, base, region, and cognitive domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.2.3. Prototypical scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.3. Three examples: Scribe, anger, and city gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.3.1. The ancient Egyptian word zakhau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.3.2. Anger in English, Japanese, and Biblical Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.3.3. The city gate in ancient Cisjordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
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vi Contents
Chapter 4
Grammar as Cognition, Part 1: Nominal Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.1. Nominal and relational profile, trajector, and landmark . . . . . . . . . 105
4.2. Grounding and integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.3. Summary of chapters 4, 5, and 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.4. Nominal profiles: Independent and relational nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.5. Relational nouns in Biblical Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.5.1. Nouns designating family and family in-law relationships . . 114
4.5.2. Nouns designating affiliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.5.3. Nouns designating partial or spatial entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.5.4. Participial nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.5.5. Infinitives absolute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.6. Grounding of nominals in usage events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.7. Integration of nominals in texts and valence relations . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.8. Example: The nouns “child” and dly yeled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Chapter 5
Grammar as Cognition, Part 2: Atemporal Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.2. Simple atemporal relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.3. Complex atemporal relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.4. Atemporal relations in Biblical Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.4.1. Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.4.2. Conjunctions, adverbs, and particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.4.3. Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.4.4. Participles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
5.4.5. Infinitives construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.5. Example: The preposition ynpAl[ ºal-pénê in Genesis 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.5.1. The preposition ynpAl[ ºal-pénê in Genesis 1:2a . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.5.2. The preposition ynpAl[ ºal-pénê in Genesis 1:2b . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.5.3. The preposition ynpAl[ ºal-pénê in Genesis 1:20b . . . . . . . . . . 163
5.5.4. The preposition ynpAl[ ºal-pénê in Genesis 1:29 . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Chapter 6
Grammar as Cognition, Part 3: Temporal Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.2. Stative and dynamic verb types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
6.3. Stative and dynamic verbs in Biblical Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
6.3.1. Definitions of terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
6.3.2. Survey of Biblical Hebrew grammars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.3.3. Verb types in Biblical Hebrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6.4. Example: An analysis of the temporal and atemporal relations
in Genesis 1 with an emphasis on the verb arb baraª . . . . . . . . . . 184
6.4.1. Atemporal and temporal relations in Genesis 1 . . . . . . . . . . . 185
6.4.2. The verb arb baraª in Genesis 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
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Contents vii
Chapter 7
Cognitive Method of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
7.1. Reflections on the method of analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
7.2. Cognitive method of analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Chapter 8
Mental Processing Expressed by the Word amf †immeª . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
8.1. The category of purity/impurity and its cognitive domains . . . . . . . 207
8.2. Eight biblical texts with amf †immeª . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
8.2.1. Leviticus 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
8.2.2. Leviticus 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
8.2.3. Numbers 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
8.2.4. Numbers 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
8.2.5. Deuteronomy 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
8.2.6. Ezekiel 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
8.2.7. Ezekiel 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
8.2.8. Ezekiel 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
8.3. Language and cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
8.3.1. The unification of profile-base-domain relationships . . . . . . 252
8.3.2. Prototypical scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
8.3.3. The schematic meaning of †immeª Piel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
8.3.4. Language and history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Chapter 9
Mental Processing Expressed by Genesis 34
and Its Triple Use of amf †immeª . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
9.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
9.2. Genesis 34:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
9.2.1. The nominals in Genesis 34:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
9.2.2. The temporal relation in Genesis 34:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
9.2.3. The composite semantic structure of Genesis 34:1 . . . . . . . . 276
9.2.4. The emergent picture of meaning in Genesis 34:1 . . . . . . . . 278
9.3. Genesis 34:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
9.3.1. The nominals in Genesis 34:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
9.3.2. Correspondences between the nominals
in Genesis 34:1–2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
9.3.3. The temporal relations in Genesis 34:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
9.3.4. The composite semantic structure of Genesis 34:2 . . . . . . . . 295
9.3.5. The emergent picture of meaning in Genesis 34:1–2 . . . . . . 296
9.4. Genesis 34:3–4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
9.4.1. The nominals in Genesis 34:3–4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
9.4.2. The temporal relations in Genesis 34:3–4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
9.4.3. The composite semantic structure of Genesis 34:3–4 . . . . . . 308
9.4.4. The emergent picture of meaning in Genesis 34:1–4 . . . . . . 309
9.5. Genesis 34:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
9.5.1. The nominals in Genesis 34:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
9.5.2. The atemporal relations in Genesis 34:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
9.5.3. The temporal relation in Genesis 34:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
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9.5.4. The composite semantic structure of Genesis 34:5 . . . . . . . . 315
9.5.5. The emergent picture of meaning in Genesis 34:5 . . . . . . . . 316
9.6. Genesis 34:6–7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
9.6.1. The nominals in Genesis 34:7a-b-c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
9.6.2. Atemporal relations in Genesis 34:6–7a-b-c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
9.6.3. The temporal relations in Genesis 34:7a-b-c . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
9.6.4. The nominals in Genesis 34:7d–e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
9.6.5. The atemporal relations in Genesis 34:7d–e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
9.6.6. The composite semantic structure of Genesis 34:7 . . . . . . . . 325
9.6.7. The emergent picture of meaning in Genesis 34:5–7 . . . . . . . 326
9.7. Intermezzo I: Genesis 34:8–12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
9.8. Genesis 34:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
9.8.1. The nominals in Genesis 34:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
9.8.2. Atemporal relations in Genesis 34:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
9.8.3. The temporal relations in Genesis 34:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
9.8.4. Correspondences in semantic substructures
in Genesis 34:5, 7, and 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
9.9. Intermezzo II: Genesis 34:14–17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
9.10. Intermezzo III: Genesis 34:18–24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
9.11. Intermezzo IV: Genesis 34:25–29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
9.12. Genesis 34:27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
9.13. Intermezzo V: Genesis 34:30–31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
9.14. The emergent picture of meaning in Genesis 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Chapter 10
Summary and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
10.1. Summary of the theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
10.2. Summary of the method of analysis and the analytical results . . . 362
10.2.1. The crescent moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
10.2.2. The in-law family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
10.2.3. The city gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
10.2.4. Differentiation and separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
10.3. Evaluation in terms of set aims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Indexes
Index of Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Index of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
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Preface
The landscape of the mind is fascinating. To follow the course of the an-
cient mind and consider the biblical texts to be its landmarks is a great chal-
lenge. The present book is the result of this trajectory. Although I have been
the trajector along this path, its finalization was made possible by the sup-
port of many people. It is a pleasure to thank them here.
I am indebted to the University of Tilburg (The Netherlands) for support-
ing me in writing this book. The academic environment of the Department
of Religious Studies and Theology, its organizational and financial support,
as well as its warm atmosphere of collegiality and shared responsibility for
higher education have been inspiring indeed. Former and present members
of the Hebrew Bible research program, Pierre Van Hecke, Albert Kamp, the
late Ron Pirson (whose spirit is still present to the Tilburg faculty), Max van
de Wiel, and Miranda Vroon-van Vugt each contributed his or her own com-
petence to a climate of exchange and debate. The intense dialogues with my
colleague from the New Testament department, Huub van de Sandt, evoked
topics of a historical nature and resulted in a growing awareness of the em-
bedding of concepts in ancient Near Eastern, biblical, and Jewish thought. I
have been protected from the burden of management and deanship by Wim
Weren, Professor of New Testament at Tilburg, who was so kind as to carry
these responsibilities over many years, allowing me to concentrate on read-
ing and research. I wish to express my special gratitude to Lut Callaert, my
extra right hand and extended memory—an extension with many giga-
bytes—for commenting on previous versions, for checking and double-
checking references, and for her never-ending support. I could not have
done without her. Peter Hammer’s production of the many figures in the
book and Hanneke van Loon’s contribution to the Hebrew transliteration
and coding made the book more accessible and attractive. Thanks are due
for the skill and care with which my publisher Jim Eisenbraun and his staff
handled my manuscript. I am privileged to have had Mrs. Beverly McCoy as
the editor of my manuscript. The care and accuracy with which she worked,
the attention she paid to even the smallest details, is amazing. It has im-
proved the book’s style and accessibility.
International experts have read and commented on earlier versions of
this book. I received valuable comments from Ed Greenstein (Bar-Ilan Uni-
versity, Israel), who with endless care read and discussed its contents and de-
tails. His friendly advice and constructive criticism are very much appreci-
ated. This is equally true of Professor Dirk Geeraerts (Leuven University,
- ix -